The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1887-07-16
Correspondence Baltimore County Union.
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.
NOT ENGLISH.


Volapuk, the new universal language which Is
meeting with such favor in Europe, is the result |
of twenty years of laborious research on the part
of its inventor, M. Schleyer of Constance. Its |
great merit lies in its simplicity, which causes 1t
to be very quickly learned, and to be especially
adapted to the needs Of trade between diherent
nations. 1t has no artificial genders, single |
coniugation, and no irregular verbs. The roots
of its words have been borrowed from all the Ian
guages Of Europe. The adjective, verb and ad-
verb are regularly formed from the substantive,
and have invariably the same termination. vol
apuk grammars have now been prepared In Eng
fish, as well as in most other important languages
of the globe.
-nag RAPID TELEGRAPHY.
The system of stenotelegraphy devised by M.
G.. A. Cassagnes of Paris, combines some features
of shorthand writing, synchronous-mul tele-
graphy, and type-writinga In 3 recent trial be-
tween Paris and Orleans, rapid operator sent
messages at the rate of 200 words per minute
With an automatic transmitter, using strip of
paper previously perforated, as in some telegraphc
systems already in vogue, 1900 words an hour
were sent over o line some 400 miles long, the
messages being automatically printed by the re-
ceiving instrument lSt fa' FL '''H
-, LIMITS OF STATURE.
Ancient writer's have mentioned giants exceed
ing ten and even twelve feet in height, but these
accounts have doubtless been greatly exaggerated,
and it may we'll be questioned whether any OF
these individuals have exceeded in stature the
giant Winckelmeler, who is now exhibiting
in France, and who is eight and a half feet high.
Dwarfs of sixteen and even twelve inches are said
to have existed, but these diminutive creatures
have been either immature or illy-formed.
noteworthy instance of very small and perfectly
developed dwarf is the celebrated LBorulawsky,
who was born in 1889 and died in 1887, and never
was over twenty nine inches in height Inese
two examples are selected by La Nature, OF Paris,
os on ;lIustration of the extremes between which
human stature ranges.
CURIOUS DISCOVERY.
Russian physician, DIR. S. Th. Stein, reports
some remarkable experiments, in which ne mas
tuning-fork for twelve to twenty four hours,
or for a much less time when the animals were de-
prived of the power of hearing. The cataract
soon disappeared on removing the exciting cause,
and could be renewed. The phenomenon has not
been satisfactorily explained.
Fra SEEKING LIGHT IN THE WEST.
During the Middle Ages, leprosy, even now the
dread Of the East, was the scourge of all Europe
but it is now seldom found there except on the
west coast of Norway, where it is still frightfuy
common. Little is understood of the origin and
nature of this disease, notwithstanding the fact
that it has continued to afiict great mass of
mankind from the earliest times. The Norwegian
Government one of the most active in advancing
the cause of science is seeking to promote better
knowledge of what was formerly regarded as q
ing has dispatched DR.. G.. A. Hansen to-not
China but America. This Investigator has had
much experience with lepers, and his purpose is
to inquire into the heredity of leprosy among
Scandinavian settlers in the United States. While
such a study promises to be of much value, n
nouncement Of more direct practical importance
comes from Japan, where DR.. Goto claims to be
actually curing the disease reporting five patients
as nearly cured, nineteen as improving and seven
teen as relieved.
AN EARTHQUAKE THEORY.
possible cause of earthquakes in Europe has
been suggested to the French Academy Of Sciences
by NJ. A. Blavier who associates the great disiar
Dances of 1855, 1854 and 1857 with abnormal ac-
cumulations of ice about the North Pole. He
supposes such accumulations to have caused de-
Election of the Gulf Stream away from Europe,
producing great climatic changes and slight
disturbance of equilibrium in the bottom, fol-
lowed by possible local fracture along the line
of least resistance. Evidence of the thrush of
cold oceanic waters is furnished by the disappear
ance of sardines from the west coast of Europe
during the years in question.
MISCELLANEOUS.
vexing and unsettled question in physiology
is, Why are not the walls Of stomach and intes-
tines themselves digested by their own fluids !?
Because these tissues are living, was the answer
of John Hunter in 1772, but DR.. ]. W. Warren
has just disproved this explanation by digesting
the legs of living frogs in artificial gastric juice.
The lately advocated aniline treatment of con-
sumption has proven, in the estimation of the
Moscow Medical Society, not merely useless but
positively dangerous.
Analyses of the air in the schools halls and
churches of Edinburgh are being made by the
health authorities. Tests applied to show not
only the proportion of carbonic acid gas but also
the percentage of organic matter, to which the
stufy odor of close rooms is attributed. Several
European cities have such analyses.
In France, persons are said to have been put
into hypnotic sleep by telephone. A newspaper
editor was hypnotized within two or three minutes
after placing the telephone to his ear the operator
being mile distant. - ~
Experiments described to the Physical Society
of London by Mr.. Shelford Bidwell indicate that
the electrical resistance of suspended copper and
iron wires alters with the direction of the testing
current.